Why is air purification so important?
Imagine a new world, clean and healthy for everyone. A world where pollution doesn’t exist. In the cities, you taste the scent of the seasons and you start breathing again. Imagine a new feeling in your chest that makes you feel more alive with every breath. How would it be to live like that?
When the air suddenly gets better
These questions were answered by Professor Dean Schraufnagel from Illinois University with research published in the scientific magazine Annals of American Thoracic Society, which analysed places where the air suddenly became cleaner. For example, Atlanta blocked the traffic so that the athletes could have better mobility around the city during the Olympic Games of 1996. As a result, hospitals had 40% fewer cases of childhood asthma and 11% fewer emergency cases. The city of Beijing also registered fewer cases of asthma and heart attacks when they hosted the Olympic Games in 2008.
After a 13-month closure of a steelworks in Utah, local hospitals registered:
- 50% fewer admissions for pneumonia, pleurisy, bronchitis and asthma.
- 40% fewer school absences
- 16% fewer deaths every day for every 100 micrograms of powder less per cubic meter.
- fewer premature deliveries
Children are the part of the population most affected by air pollution and would benefit the most from an improvement of air quality. In Nigeria, women who owned kitchen products that emitted less pollution than their peers raised healthier children and fewer babies died within the first week of delivery.
How to act for a clean-air planet
It has been years since the world started to discuss how to live a low impact life and now more than ever, during a pandemic, air quality has become a priority. According to Forbes, investing in air purification is crucial for workers wellbeing and their productivity. The World Economic Forum suggests using state aid to make long-term investments and promote a low-emission economy: investing in innovation and in companies that work to lower carbon emissions is a good way to enhance and promote a clean economy and keep up with the concurrency. After the 2008 financial crisis, we saw sustainable industries like solar energy booming. Investing in sustainability can be both convenient for a company's balance sheet and an important step for a purer, cleaner and healthier world.
